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LATE MODERNISM

LATE MODERNISM

The short trail of Late Modernism leads you to discover long forgotten
visions, which were supposed to change the face of Trenčianske Teplice. After
the nationalization of big companies and beginning of communist government,
spas had gradually altered their purpose of treatment. All spa locations in
Czechoslovakia were affected by this trend. The 1950´s accentuated luxury and
bourgeois comfort for the working class, but soon afterwards, senior civil
servants realized the potential to use the balneological treasure as
a source of foreign income. In the 1960´s, at the time of political and
ideological ease connected with reforms, spas made a comeback. In late
1960´s, due to the lack of accommodation capacities, an
architectonical tender was announced in order to create a new urban
layout of the town. The vision of change was based on a completely new arrangement
of the place of the original settlement between the manor house and the church,
which is now known as spa square. Today´s big sanatoriums Krym, Jalta (Slovakia)
and the oldest Pax, were supposed to include complete accommodation, cultural
and balneological infrastructure. Despite the utopian intention, fragments of
these projects can be observed. While the Jalta and the Krym were completed
according to the tender´s intentions, the other side of the street stands
seemingly untouched. Behind the small park at the manor house, there is
a background facility intended for spa employees – a canteen. It has
lost its historic value by an insensitive reconstruction. The building was
supposed to complement a complex of new sanatoriums set in a gently
increasing slope with terraced floors. The
social infrastructure was expected to be complemented by a new cultural
centre with several lounges and congress facilities, located next to the
shopping centre. Considering this unified urban plan setting, two big
sanatoriums exist nowadays, which are a valuable example of the Slovak
architecture of the second half of the 20th century´s late modernism. Despite their
size, they are an inseparable part of town centre.